Chapter 12
CHAPTER 12
B ree stared down at Adam on his knee. He held another ring, this one a double anniversary band with all three of their birthstones interspersed with the two bands of diamonds.
“Bree?”
He looked so earnest, kneeling there with his heart in his eyes.
Her eyes teared and she reached over and cupped his beloved face. “Yes, Adam, I’ll?—”
Adam whooped, bounded up, and wrapped her in his arms.
His lips found hers, and this kiss was more than she could have hoped for. Every bit of longing was in his kiss. Every bit of love and commitment and celebration was in his kiss.
He broke the kiss. “I love you, Bree. I think I’ve loved you forever but was afraid to tell you. I’m not afraid anymore. I want to shout it to the world, write it across the sky, and take out a full-page ad in every newspaper, proclaiming my love for you.” He wrapped her tighter in his arms and lifted her, swinging her in a circle.
She laughed and held on for the ride. He slowed and put her down. She reached up and cupped his face between her palms. “Adam, I love you more than I thought possible. You’ve made all my dreams come true, giving me Lilly and now you. I couldn’t ask for more.”
“When do you want to renew our vows? Do you want a big wedding? Do you?—”
“I don’t need another ceremony. What I need is a wedding night. I don’t ever want to be out of your arms again. I want to sleep beside you every night and wake up with you every morning. That’s all I want.” She pressed her lips against his. This was her first kiss she initiated as a wife in love with her husband. The first of many.
Bree looked around the room at all the flowers and smiled. Adam had taken her love of flowers and set the mood to something she would love. She couldn’t imagine a more romantic and loving proposal.
Lilly hollered and cried.
Bree listened for a moment. Then she kissed Adam, her kiss full of her love for him. “Time to get our little girl. She’s growing by leaps and bounds. She won’t be a baby much longer. She’s almost a year old now. Where did the time go?”
“But, my darling bride, she’s not the last baby we’ll have. I want to start working on that as soon as possible.” He winked at her.
She was both scandalized and flattered at the same time. Bree shook her head and then laughed. “I’d like nothing more than to work on having a baby with you and giving Lilly a little brother or sister. “
“Good.” He placed a soft kiss on her mouth. “Let’s get Lilly and play with her until her nap time. Then we can take a nap, too.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“I think a nap sounds like a wonderful idea.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and placed her lips on his, kissing him with all the love in her heart. She couldn’t wait for nap time to show him how she felt. When she pulled back, she saw Adam was smiling. That was the thing she wanted to see most…him smiling at her.
She took his hand, and they walked back to Lilly’s room to spend some quality time with their precious daughter.
One month later
Lilly sat in her highchair, a chocolate cupcake with one candle on it was in front of her.
“Come on, baby girl. You can blow it out. Mommy and Daddy will help.”
Bree and Adam, one standing on either side of Lilly, jointly blew out the candle on the sweet treat.
Then Bree took the candle from the treat and handed the cupcake to Lilly who took it and smashed it in her hand before getting some into in her mouth.
Adam laughed.
So did Bree. “She’ll need a bath after this.”
“We can do it together. I love watching her play in the tub. She enjoys it so much. I only hope our first child together is as good-natured as Lilly. I have a feeling the next child will be a Beelzebub in comparison.”
Bree placed two fingers on his lips. “Shh, you’ll curse us.”
He kissed her fingers.
Since he’d asked her to marry him again, they’d spent every night together making love and cuddling, even in their sleep.
Bree couldn’t remember sleeping better. She woke every morning with a smile.
Adam told her he felt the same way. He’d actually dreaded going into the office, so he’d left Emily in charge. He worked from home and what he couldn’t do there, he did on his weekly visit downtown.
Sometimes Bree and Lilly drove behind him to the office and shopped until noon. Then he would take them somewhere fun for lunch. Afterward, Bree headed home a put Lilly down for her nap while she took one herself.
She tired easily lately and needed the nap in the afternoon to be chipper when Adam returned.
On the days he was home, they’d taken to napping when Lilly did on a regular basis.
Not until Bree missed her monthly—or Riding the Crimson Stallion, as she referred to it—did she take a pregnancy test. Seeing the result, she had to be sure and took a second test. Both had the same result. Positive. She was pregnant.
She started to whoop and holler and then remembered that Lilly was sleeping. Tossing the tests into the trash, she hurried downstairs to ask Carole to prepare Adam’s favorite meal. He grew up on a ranch and was a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy. His mother’s meatloaf was his favorite thing in the world. Madelyn gave Carole the recipe so she could make it for Adam.
They hadn’t had it for a long time, so meatloaf and mashed potatoes were on the menu, along with a German chocolate cake for dessert.
She couldn’t wait for him to arrive home.
Bree was absolutely giddy by the time Adam arrived home.
When he came through the door from the garage into the kitchen, he stopped and sniffed. “Is that meatloaf I smell?” He sniffed again. “If it’s not it is the second most wonderful thing I’ve ever smelled.”
She laughed and walked over to him from her spot by Lilly in the family room. She wrapped her arms around his waist. “Hi, there.”
“Hi, there.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Did you have a good day?”
“From the looks of you. I definitely had a better day than you did.”
“I’m just tired. The day wasn’t bad, just busy. That happens when you only go into the office one day a week.”
“Do you want to go in more than one day?” Bree didn’t want him to, but she also knew that he needed to do what was necessary for his business.
Adam frowned. “Why would I want to do that? I love being home with you and Lilly.” He placed his arms around her. “So tell me about your day instead.”
“Well,” Bree hesitated. “You remember how we started working on expanding our family as soon as you proposed?”
“I remember. As a matter of fact, I remember just about every time we’ve worked on expanding the family. Why do you ask?”
“Because I believe the night you proposed we got a second blessing.” She took his hand and placed it on her lower belly. “We’re going to have a baby.”
Adam was slow to grin, but when he did, it was devastating. “A baby.”
“Yup. Lilly is going to have a little brother or sister. What do you think?” She was pretty sure he was as thrilled as she was, he was smiling after all.
Suddenly he picked her up and swung her in a circle. “We’re having another baby!” He grinned and then slowly let her slide down him to the floor. “That’s the best news ever. How do you think Lilly will feel about it?”
“I think she’ll be thrilled. It will be like having a live baby doll. She’ll want to dress him up?—”
His eyes widened. “Him? Do you know what it is already?”
She chuckled. “No, silly. I just don’t want to be calling him an it, so I’m saying him.”
He chuckled. “Right. Of course.”
She gazed up at him, a hint of worry in her mind. “Our family is expanding. Are you happy?”
He hugged her closer. “Yes. I want us to have more children, I just wasn’t expecting it so soon. I mean in the back of my mind, I knew it was a possibility, but how often does it happen so quickly? We made love several times that first night, but still…”
“Probably more often than we can imagine. Anyway, in celebration I asked Carole to prepare your favorite meal…your mom’s meatloaf. We haven’t had it since I moved in, so I’m looking forward to it, too. Come on. Let’s get our daughter. She needs to be fed and put to bed. Then we can have a quiet dinner, just the two of us.”
“Sounds good. I might even have time to romance my wife before dinner.”
They walked into the family room, picked up Lilly and put their plan into effect.
Bree was as anxious as Adam for a little romancing before dinner and after, too.
Three weeks later
Adam looked weary when Bree saw him.
She went to him and hugged him. “Are you okay? You don’t look okay.”
He told her what had happened, leaving nothing out.
“I’m sorry your day sucked, but I have a surprise. Come on.” She took his hand and pulled him into the family room.
Lilly sat on a blanket in the middle of the floor.
They’d pushed the furniture back close to the walls and fashioned a gate in front of the fireplace.
The middle of the room was bare except for the blanket and Lilly’s toys.
“Lilly, look who’s home.”
The baby looked over at her parents. “Dada. Dada. Dada.”
Adam grinned as wide as his face.
Bree had been working extra hard to get her to say dada, but the stubborn little thing she was, she refused and called him mama instead.
He lifted Lilly in the air above his head and jiggled her a little bit.
She screamed with laughter.
Then he brought her down and held her with his arm under her butt. “You made Daddy very happy. Who’s Daddy’s girl?” He tickled her. “Who’s Daddy’s girl?”
“Lilee,” she said.
Adam’s eyes widened and he looked at Bree. “She said her name. She knows who she is.”
Nodding, Bree’s eyes filled with tears.
Lilly had been chattering for months with mama being the only word that Bree and Adam understood. Now she was talking. Saying new words every day.
How would she react to a new baby? Would she be jealous? Excited?
She wouldn’t understand where the baby came from but she would understand when the baby was here.
Was Bree ready for another baby?
Should they have waited until Lilly was out of diapers?
Adam put his free arm around Bree’s waist and snugged her close. “What are you thinking about? I can see your mind whirling a mile a minute.”
She looked up at her husband, then at her daughter in his arm, and realized nothing else mattered. These two were her heart and she loved them more than life itself. The new baby would only add to her happiness.
“I was thinking about our family,” she answered honestly. “You two are my heart. I love you more than I can ever express.”
Adam’s gaze softened. “I feel the same way, my love.”
She realized then that her dreams had come true. Not as she expected them, that was true. But it was perfect all the same.
Bree smiled at her husband. “I love you.”
“I love you, too. What brought that on?”
“I was just thinking how wonderful my life turned out to be and how happy I am.”
He grinned. “That was awfully schmaltzy.”
“I can live with that.”
The following day Adam received a call and headed to his office to take it, leaving Bree with a sleepy Lilly in the family room.
When Lilly finally conked out and Adam wasn’t back yet, Bree sought him out in his office.
“Yes, I understand. Thank you for calling.” He set his phone on the desk and looked up at Bree. “That was the DA. Simon has pleaded guilty to stealing secrets from Danvers. I didn’t even know he’d been doing that.” He ran a hand through his hair, making it stand on end in spots. “Anyway, the kidnapping charge is off the table. He’ll still spend time in prison, just not as much. And we don’t have to testify.”
Bree sat in one of the leather chairs across from his desk. “Well, not testifying is a good thing. I wasn’t looking forward to it. We can go about our lives and not think about Simon anymore.”
“That’s true. I want to discuss something else with you. What have you been thinking about your garden center? Do you still want to do it? Is it something you’d like to table for now. I want you to do whatever makes you happy.”
“Well, my writing has been taking off and I’ve sort of put the garden center on the back burner. I want to concentrate on my writing. It’s proving to be very lucrative, and I want to keep at it. So, if I do the garden center, and that looks less and less likely, it will be years down the road.